Bruce Feng, determined to be fair to Los Angeles, pulls his City of Burbank van to a stop where Clybourn Avenue dead-ends at the eastbound Ventura Freeway. For more than five miles, the boundary between L.A. and Burbank runs down the middle of Clybourn, the main drivable street shared by the two cities. Feng, Burbank's public works director, wants to point out a spot where L.A.'s portion of the road is better maintained.

Beginning Monday one eastbound and one westbound lane along Burbank Boulevard in Warner Center will be closed between Canoga Avenue and Topanga Canyon Boulevard for resurfacing, according to the Los Angeles Bureau of Street Maintenance. The top surface of the two-block stretch will be stripped and replaced, said William Harding, the bureau's superintendent of resurfacing and special projects. Traffic will be restricted to one lane in each direction from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Jan.

In an effort to improve traffic safety and ease congestion, the Burbank City Council has approved an agreement that will computerize and synchronize traffic signals along Victory Boulevard. The agreement between Burbank and the city of Los Angeles will allow installation of an automated traffic surveillance and control system along Victory between Clybourn Avenue and the Golden State Freeway.

The last time this two-mile stretch of Burbank Boulevard in North Hollywood was repaved, Dwight D. Eisenhower was president, Walter Alston was the rookie manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers and "From Here to Eternity" took the Oscar for best picture. And the two men who presided over Monday's celebratory asphalt-laying -- Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Councilman Tom LaBonge -- were both still in diapers.

The quiet stretch of Burbank Boulevard near Burbank's downtown could be a set for the movie "Pleasantville." One of the bungalows on this wide, tree-lined street is actually a homey restaurant named The Place for Steak. Little on its menu would have been too far out for the folks in Pleasantville. There's nothing fancier than Caesar salad and aged steak, mostly USDA Choice. A few cuts are Prime and carry a slightly higher price tag. But no price tag is very high.

Everywhere students turn, they see the posters plastered on classroom and office walls at Burbank Boulevard Elementary School: "Literacy is our school focus," and "We are reading our way to success." The message has sunk in. According to a Times analysis of standardized test scores released Monday by the state Education Department, the 640-student campus increased its overall score during the past two years by an impressive 18.2 percentage points. In 1998, 22.

A murder suspect facing his third strike under California's penal code barricaded himself inside a friend's apartment and killed himself Wednesday morning after Los Angeles police cornered him and evacuated the neighborhood, including a preschool. Police had an arrest warrant for 23-year-old Ronald Figueroa, wanted in connection with a May drive-by shooting of a 20-year-old woman who was riding in a car with rival gang members in Montecito Heights.

The San Fernando Valley is 260 square miles of suburbia. Actually, make that suburbia on nutritional supplements. And antidepressants. With perhaps a little cosmetic surgery south of Ventura Boulevard, where the big money is. Or maybe - now that it's grown to more than 1.7 million people in nearly three dozen cities and neighborhoods rich and poor - the Valley isn't even a suburb anymore. It begins just 10 miles northwest of Los Angeles City Hall, sprawling west to the Simi Hills, north to the Santa Susana Mountains, and east to the Verdugo and San Gabriel mountains.

Two pedestrians were killed by a hit-and-run driver as they crossed Burbank Boulevard in Tarzana Sunday afternoon, police said. Arnold Feldman, 61, and a 37-year-old Tarzana woman whose name was not released pending notification of relatives, were struck by a white car as they crossed the street in the 18600 block of Burbank Boulevard, said Los Angeles Police Sgt. Joe Cross. Cross said the two people were crossing mid-block when the car struck them.